SFM is a combination of diameter and the velocity (RPM) of the material measured in feet-per-minute as the spindle of a milling machine or lathe. 1 SFM equals 0.00508 m/s (meter per second, the SI unit of speed). The faster the spindle turns, and/or the larger the diameter, the higher the SFM. The goal is to tool a job to run the SFM as high as possible to increase hourly part production. However some materials will run better at specific SFMs. When the SFM is known for a specific material (ex 303 annealed stainless steel = 120 SFM for high speed steel tooling), a formula can be used to determine spindle speed for live tools or spindle speeds for turning materials.

In a milling machine, the tool diameter is substituted for stock diameter in the following formulas when the cutter is revolving and the stock is stationary.